Another Patrones for DD

Thank you for all your compliments and tips on wearing for the pants. DD wore them today, and thinks they're fine. I'm pretty sure your comments helped in her positive attitude.

Before going back to sewing for myself I'm making DD a blouse from the same Patrones issue as the pants. It's her birthday next Sunday, and though I don't make her new birthday clothes each year, I've done it regularly. This year I promised to make her this blouse.

 

It is a blouse with back yoke, collar with stand, darts in front and back and a special ruche at the front. I made the ruche first with the pattern part, but it was too wide. Then I just cut a 4 cm wide bias strip of fabric, made a rolled hem with my new serger (I bought a Bernina again, I'll write a post about it another time) and gathered that strip to the front. We both think this is much better, certainly with the plaid, which looks strange in the first version, on the left.

The fabric is cotton with a metallic thread, and when you press it using steam, there are threads in it that shrink, making the overall appearance a little wrinkled.

Summerset, I took another look at your posts of the Easter suit, I love the jacket even more. I hadn't realized that you had made it already, as at the time you made it, I didn't have the Patrones issue myself. Same for the pants. I'm going to read your posts in detail once I get to this pattern. And Matrosehase, I'll make a muslin for sure, so that I can check fit and the size of the collar. Thank you for the warning, I'll pay extra attention to that.

Vicky: Patrones does have line drawings, and a cutting layout with each pattern. Finding the pattern pieces is just as easy (or difficult as you like) as with BWOF. But BWOF has instructions in different languages, depending on the country you live, while Patrones is only available in Spanish.

Patrones pants DD finished

The pants are finished. DD is not sure about the style on her. Not very surprising, she usually wears jeans, and this is much wider than jeans. But I like the pants, and in the end they were very easy to construct. As I mention in my review too, the size was pretty close, which adds to my liking of this magazine. It's good to know that you can rely on a size chart. The only change after the first fitting was letting out waist and hip a little bit (but not so much as needing a larger size) and make the crotch depth a bit deeper.

 

 

The waistband is a separate piece, I don't know if I've done this correct, but it at least looks like the magazine.

This issue of Patrones (264) is certainly a keeper, there are a lot of patterns I like in it.

A few pictures, the yellow jacket en the top are high on my "to sew" list. The pictures sometimes are the same as in BWOF: the details are hidden, and with Patrones no website with pictures to see them in more detail.

I bought a dressform

On a Dutch site I found this second-hand dressform for sale,there already was someone who bid on it, but I was lucky my bid was accepted. I was near the seller today, and could pick it up in combination with a business trip.

The dressform is a size 40. On seeing the picture on the internet I already saw that she is too small in general, but that is not so important. I compared the sizes with the BWOF size chart and in bust and hips she is the same as the BWOF size 40. But the waist is 8 cm (more than 3 inches) smaller! My waist is certainly not that small!

But as my back is narrow it's correct in that area and I think I can adapt her to my bust size by putting on a bra. I've seen that done before on several sites. This means that I can use the dressform for blouses and jackets while working on it. The dressform will not be the main fitting instrument for me, just a helpful tool.

Speaking of tools: my serger crashed again! And I've decided to replace it. Too much irritation and time loss because of a badly behaving serger that is 16 years old. I'll be visiting one or two dealers tomorrow, and hopefully have a new serger in the weekend.

Patrones 264 - 41

Yes! I started sewing again, and that feels so good. Carolyn asked whether I had a good holiday, and the answer is yes, I had a good, relaxing holiday. But I would have loved to take my sewing machine. Not this time though.

I promised myself another quiet week from work (hope this will come true), and this afternoon started the pants I promised my daughter. It's number 41 from the Patrones spring/summer issue. Till now I only made one other Patrones pattern, a pair of pants for myself. And I don't speak Spanish so I have to work from pictures and line drawings. That's not a real problem, you just have to solve a few things for yourself. In these pants that will be the way the waistband is constructed, as that is not straightforward.

Main question for me is the sizing, for my daughter we concluded that it would have to be size 44 (which she found awful, in BWOF she's a 38, and this sounded so big). To be sure I cut the pattern with really wide seams, but as you can see from the pictures below, it's really very close. The construction of the seams is only done with the longest straight stitch on my machine, and I did not yet press the sides. All this will be taken out and constructed properly.

I will sew the center back seam as last seam, as I do for my own pants too, which will give me some flexibility for the waist.

What will fall bring?

I'm back from a two week holiday in France. This is a picture from the view we had from the house we rented in the second week. A lovely place, the owners did all to make it a comfortable holiday home. Wish I had a view so lovely from my own house.

Before the holidays started there was no time to sew, and I really hope to be sewing again very soon. Just now there are just a few plans in my head. As an advertisement campaign on the internet seems to pay off with quite a few new prospects for my business, I need a bit more working clothes to visit potential customers. It will all be not very formal, as the general clothing style in the Netherlands is rather casual. So no black or blue suits, but a pair of pants with a pretty blouse/top and (depending on the weather) a jacket is the style I'm thinking of.

I'm doubting to write about the plans I have, for the reason that a) there won't be enough time to make all that I plan anyhow, and b) I tend to change my plans very often. Thus I'll just write about the projects I'm actually starting. The next project will be a pair of Patrones pants I promised my daughter.

But first I'm going to scan through the pattern reviews and some of the blog posts that were published during the past weeks on the blogs that I subscribe to. There were over 350 new posts in Google reader, so I won't have time to read them all, what a writing lot we all are, it's fun.

Hope you all are well and making your fall plans (or spring if you're on the other side of the globe).

Inspiration, but no sewing

It will be quiet on my blog for a while. I didn't do any actual sewing after finishing my jacket. Started making a lin gerie set, but even though I usually make a set in small periods of say 15 or 20 minutes at a time, there just is no time to do a lot on it.
And also there is/was not a lot of time to read reviews or blogs. I do skim a lot of posts in between through the reader, but don't comment a lot at the moment.

Most frustrating on having no sewing time at the moment is the fact that I didn't even redo my coat muslin. I intend to make (yet another) muslin in size 40 and do an FBA. This like Nancy K suggested, as I never sew 44 for tops in BWOF sizes. And this coat seems to have enough room in the upper part. All those who commented on my muslin where very right on that part.
Nancy K asked what interfacing I will use to stabilize the fabric, and it will be Vlieseline H410 (this is sold in other parts of the world as Vilene).

Coming week is finishing a lot of work and then I'll be away for two weeks. I'll be back sewing somewhere in the second half of August I hope. In the meantime I will think of what to make of these fabric combinations. I'm so inspired by all the capsules and mini-wardrobes I've seen in the past months. And then it will also be time to do some fall sewing, which I think is more inspiring than summer sewing. And I do want to finish that coat!

 

	Black/white/red. The bouclé is from Fashionista fabrics.  It will be a jacket. Striped black a pair of pants, white a blouse and the black is a knit for a nice t-shirt.
	Blue/white. The right aqua will be a jacket too (can you tell I love jackets) and the stripe in the other fabric has exactly the same color. The other blue is a linen pants that's almost finished, but an UFO for three weeks now. The white the same fabric as above for a blouse.

Sleeve vent (version 2)

As promised last week, another way to make a sleeve with vent. This is a more classic method, with no hong kong finishing as in the previous method. And like Maree said in her comment on my previous tutorial, it is quite a bit of work, but I want to explore these methods myself. Taking pictures and writing it down is also a good way to keep track of my experiments for myself.

 

	Upper sleeve vent is cut without seam allowance, under sleeve vent with seam allowance. I've marked the lines in the picture with extra lines.
	Sew sleeve seam without vent. Cut and grade seam as necessary for your fabric.
	Interface the upper sleeve and under sleeve. Do not interface the facing of the uppersleeve. You could also interface the separate sleeve parts and then sew the sleeve seam.
	Fold up the hem allowance of the upper sleeve.
	Fold the sleeve vent facing of the upper sleeve and mark the point where hem and vent meet.
	Draw a straight line from marking to point of hem.
	Sew the facing and hem together on these lines.
	Trim seam allowance.
	Open seam and fold back.
	This is the result. (the black is my pencil marking)
	Sew the buttonholes.
	For the under sleeve, fold the hem allowance to the right side.
	Stitch seam (don't know what my sewing machine was up to, it's not very straight).
	Fold back.
	Sew the other sleeve seam till the start of the vent. Make a diagonal cut in the under sleeve seam only.
	Press seam open. If wanted you can handstitch the upper part of the vent, indicated by the arrow. I didn't do that here.
	Right side of sleeve.
	The inside.